1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a figure processing method for graphic editing.
2. Related Background Art
A character set (font) of each style is required to process characters in an electronic device represented by a wordprocessor, workstation, or printer. For this purpose, a large number of character data must be prepared. In particular, each Japanese style requires at least about 6,500 characters defined in JIS X0208 "Information Exchange Kanji Code System". In addition, a system for expressing characters in the form of outline data requires design precision more strict than original analog characters in outline character data serving as basic character data so as to enhance aesthetic effects because this system has an advantage in that only one basic character set can output character data of all sizes. Font formation based on this assumption requires a manual character forming time of several tens of minutes to several hours per character, thus resulting in inefficient jobs.
The following basic functions are assumed in editing of characters, figures, and the like in addition of the font formation. These functions are a digitizing function, i.e., a function of optically scanning an analog character pattern to obtain binary data and generating character outline data, and a character forming function, i.e., a function of editing the editing outline data generated and formed by the digitizing function to obtain final outline data having the desired quality.
The above figure process, however, poses the following problem.
When various figure processes are to be performed, e.g., when menu display is to be performed, however, one menu process is ended when another menu process is selected. The second menu must be started after the first menu operation is interrupted, resulting in degradation of workability.
The above figure process has the following problem. When a figure is to be enlarged, the entire figure is fitted in a given frame, or an enlargement factor is input numerically. However, conventional system cannot freely enlarge a figure using simple operations. That is, a process for interrupting display of a figure pattern to designate enlargement and switching the current screen to a screen for setting the enlargement factor is required.
The above figure process also has the following problem. When a figure pattern is to be visually output and edited by editing the sample points on the basis of the sample point information for expressing the figure pattern, the editing figure pattern cannot be edited while displaying a nonedited figure pattern. As a result, the relationship between the pattern before editing and a pattern after editing cannot be easily grasped.